Elevator cars are conventionally formed to comprise a load-bearing frame structure, i.e. a car sling, which comprises a lower horizontal beam system and an upper horizontal beam system, as well as a vertical beam system of a first side and a vertical beam system of a second side, which beam systems are connected to each other so that they form a closed ring, inside which is an interior comprised in a car box fixed to the beam systems, which interior can receive goods and/or passengers for conveying them in the interior of the elevator car.
The elevator car of the elevator can also be fitted inside a car sling composed of a top element, a bottom element and also side elements, i.e. vertical elements. The car and car sling can if necessary also be integrated into each other.
The outer surface of the roof of an elevator car is generally formed from plates that are firmly and rigidly supported on the upper horizontal beam system. According to prior art, there is a separate roof panel in elevator cars, below the upper horizontal beam system and the aforementioned plates forming the outer surface.
According to national and international regulations, connected to the structure of the outer surface of the roof of the elevator car is an emergency exit hatch, which is often hinged with fixed hinges to the roof structure. A roof structure of an elevator with an emergency exit hatch provided with fixed hinges is awkward and expensive to manufacture and separate fixing means are needed for installing the roof hatch as well as special tools for fixing the hinges. In addition, separate locking means are needed for locking the emergency exit hatch, which again increases the amount of parts needed and thereby the manufacturing costs, installation costs and servicing costs of the product.
Installing fixed hinges in the emergency exit hatch also essentially limits the opening direction of the hatch. Retrospectively changing the opening direction of an emergency exit hatch provided with fixed hinges is awkward and expensive, requires that the fitter has many special tools, and in some cases might even be impossible owing to the roof structure of the elevator.
Generally speaking, one problem, among others, with solutions according to prior art, such as e.g. the solution presented in publication GB2116601A, can be considered to be the non-optimal construction. More particularly the roof structure of the elevator car has not been optimized as an entity sufficiently from the standpoint of space usage and of the complexity of the construction. All the essential factors have not been simultaneously taken into account to an adequate extent, more particularly the number of parts of the roof structure of an elevator, and the techniques for manufacturing them, have not been optimal. Simplification of the roof structure and a reduction in the number of parts therefore directly impacts manufacturing costs, installation costs and servicing costs, and also increases the reliability of the elevator and reduces the structural weight of the elevator thereby lowering energy consumption and reducing operating costs. Each gram by which the structural weight, and thus the energy consumption, of the elevator can be reduced is important.